Water, Water Everywhere - The East Coast to Melbourne

Late January, 2013

Narooma was typical of many of the picturesque coastal towns along the southern NSW coast. It was nice to bump into some extended family Matt & Trish and their kids Darcy and Megan....three times.

Mimosa Rocks National Park

Gillards Beach, which we visited in honour of our great friend JJ, was one of our favourite camp spots on the East Coast, with great views, good surf and ok fishing. This grassy knoll became a regular coffee and happy-hour spot.

Craigy hooks a big one, but unfortunately it was a stingray. He  did pull in a couple of salmon though.

Goanas almost 2m in length were frequent camp visitors, along with wallabies, bandicoots, blue wrens and possums.

Boys and their toys - we're going to have to start throwing food and clothing out of the trailer soon.

Happy campers - Dad nearly gets some quiet time.












He usually manages to make up for it though.



The Good: The wonderful wildlife that surrounded our camp at Gillards Beach.
The Bad: The wonderful wildlife that picked through our rubbish, attempted to eat our food, tap-danced on our camper trailer at night, frightened our children and waged fierce animal battles at our camp...oh, and then there was the brave leech that attached itself to Nikita's leg. While we all thought, she may scream it off, it took a good splash of vinegar to do the trick. Of course I forgot you're supposed to use salt.....that's right, vinegar's for jellyfish...but I was in a bit of a panic!
The Sad: Learning that my good mate and journalist mentor Greg Kelton had passed on. Greg was a master of his craft yet one of the most humble men you could meet. He was cool and unflappable under crushing deadlines that had the rest of us swearing and sweating. We shared many a glass of red in the bowels of SA's Parliament House and in the tasting rooms of the Barossa Valley and I will miss him terribly.
The Ugly: Nikita's effort to split her head open on brick pavers by flipping backwards off a bench at a lovely cafe in Tilba, causing a tense, 6-hour concussion watch and cutting short Mum's cheese tasting....typical! Of course she was fine...but she did want to go to hospital for the jelly. Not surprisingly, at times, Nikita really wants to come home.

Sometimes, it's all just lovely though.

Striking rock formations add to the beauty of the beach walks along this stunning stretch of coast.

Sometimes the beach is just as much fun when it's stormy.

Tathra and Ben Boyd National Park - Waves the size of 3-storey buildings pummelled this normally tranquil bay as a 4-metre swell visited the coast near Tathra, much to the delight of local surfers.

Bad hair day.....as usual.

The lighthouse at Ben Boyd National Park - a short distance from the NSW/Vic border.

Many a ship has come unstuck on these rocks, with a littany of tragic tales, lives lost and incredible rescues from these unforgiving waters.

Saying farewell to the coast (for now), we had a lovely bush camp in Gippsland before heading to Melbourne.










Melbourne

The joy in seeing my wonderful girlfriend Kerryn, her family and her amazing home was heightened by her newly-found love of making Pavlova.

It seems Kerryn's social reputation as the `back-up-Queen' can be extended to Pavlovas. Two nights, two perfect, fluffy-on-the-inside, crunchy-on-the-outside meringues that had our mouths watering.

And, of course, champagne to celebrate. Celebrate what? An enduring friendship that is about to endure a lot more!!! (see below)

 

Despite the reputations surrounding Melbourne's weather, the pool at the Underwood/Norman resort saw plenty of action.

The Good: Leanne helping Kerryn and Andrew discover their insurer had mistakenly cancelled the policy for their lovely, large Hawthorn home.

The Bad: Leanne helping Kerryn and Andrew discover this by leaving the laundry tap running for a couple of hours, thereby flooding the carpet, walls and skirting boards in Sam and Lara's playroom....oops.

The Ugly: Kinda goes without saying. It was quite a mess (as was I) with soggy books, board games and toys. Thankfully, the piano was OK....otherwise I would really have been in the poop. So with that parting gift (with friends like these who needs enemies!), we tidied up as best we could and fled for the hills!!